Day: September 25, 2024

Public Works and Infrastructure Minister Dean Macpherson today met with the Auditor-General of South Africa (AGSA) for a briefing on the department’s performance for the 2022/2023 year, which saw systemic failures in meeting its targets on delivery and financial management.

The Minister and the AGSA have committed to working together to assist the department to improve its performance and auditing processes.

This forms part of the measures the Minister has committed to implementing to improve audit outcomes within the department following the results reported last week by the AG.

This will ensure that public money is spent on the intended outcomes and corruption is met with consequence management.

‘… It is important that drastic action is taken to quickly improve oversight, accounting and reporting within the department.

‘The findings that irregular expenditure jumped from R98 million in 2020/21 to R521 million in 2022/23 is deeply concerning because it is public money that is being wasted.

‘Working
together with the AGSA will help increase the oversight within our branches to expose any malpractices, as well as help officials to improve their reporting to ensure that we can begin the journey to meeting our targets and audit outcomes within the shortest timeframe possible,” the Minister said.

Macpherson said today’s meeting forms part of other actions he has taken to avoid the wastage of public money within the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure, including removing the ability for officials to spend up to R20 million without accounting officer approval, and requesting a skills audit at the Senior Management Service (SMS) level to ensure the department has the necessary skills.

‘The actions we are taking are part of our goal to lay a strong foundation at the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure to ensure we deliver on our mandate to use public assets for public good and to turn South Africa into a construction site.

‘It will not be an overnight journey to resolve these problems, but
it is something I am committed and determined to do at all costs,’ Macpherson said.

Source: South African Government News Agency

Water and Sanitation Minister Pemmy Majodina has welcomed an initiative by Just Water Partnerships (JWPs), which supports investments in water resilience and sustainability in low- and middle-income countries.

While participating in a panel discussion at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, United States of America, the Minister said there is a need for partnerships in the water sector to ensure that people have access to clean and fresh water.

‘As the government of South Africa, we support a growing cohort of partners who are interested in developing the concept of Just Water Partnerships.

“We also believe that carefully and collaboratively structured JPWs can protect existing water resources and will leave no one behind regarding the provision of water and sanitation services, and ensure that water supplies are managed sustainably,’ Majodina said on Wednesday.

The JWPs concept was formulated following a report by the Global Commission for the Economics of Water (GCEW), which highlighted tha
t traditional economics have failed the water sector, and that a new approach to the economics and governance of water should be taken to achieve a more sustainable, just and prosperous future for all.

JWPs are thus conceived as platforms that facilitate financial and governance actors (multilateral development banks, regional development banks, development finance institutions, national governments, city and local authorities, and public development banks) to support investments on their own balance sheets, as well as to catalyse greater private finance.

The Minister said the JPW concept mirrors the Department of Water and Sanitation’s commitment to build public-private partnerships to make clean water, decent toilets and good hygiene normal for everyone in the country.

This is in line with achieving Sustainable Development Goals 6.1 and 6.2, which aim to achieve universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water for all and ensuring access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygien
e for all, and end open defecation.

‘Therefore, this confirms a need for such a platform to not only ensure that investments are used efficiently and transparently, but also in a way that prioritises women, girls and others facing marginalisation globally,’ Majodina said.

Source: South African Government News Agency